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Back in the day, before there was Rotowire and Rotoman, before Prospectus (but after Abstract), before the web and texting, before stat services (mostly) and when USA Today mattered, fantasy players had five sources for preseason information. Their names were Benson, Shandler, Waggoner, Leopold (via Golenbock), and Patton.
I don't know offhand who came first or second or third, but I know that each spring the book I stalked the stores to find was Patton's. This, in large part, was because Alex (like Bill James) is really a writer first, and a baseball hound after the fact.
Back in those days I was just a player, trying to figure out how to get an edge in the rotisserie game. Each year I put together a new theory and tested it, and each year got closer. When I discovered the ideas that Patton and Leopold had about the game, mixed with Waggoner's humor, overlaid by whatever it was that James was writing that year, the heady brew bubbled in me like fermenting hops. Wholesome natural hops. All right. Rolling Rock.
The first fantasy baseball writing I ever did was culled by Alex from a series of emails, which Patton published in the section of his book he called "Notes for Masochists." These discussions were born of the good fortune I had to be invited to play in the American Dreams League, to which Patton and Leopold and Golenbock belonged.
Alex's writings aren't always easy to find, but they're an important part of the history and theory of this game we play. A young man (once) who wanted them preserved made these scans, and offered them up for us all. Here they are:
1990: Audit of last year
1990: Looking for Mr. Gold Bar
1990: Notes for Masochists
1991: Meet Adam Smith
1991: Notes for Masochists
1992: The Collapse of Russia
1992: Notes for Masochists
1993: Intro
1993: Like It Will Be
1993: Do Look Back
1993: Notes for Masochists
1994: Notes for Masochists
1995: The Predictions
1995: The Buying Game I
1995: The Buying Game II
1995: Notes for Masochists
1996: The Predictions
1996: Notes for Masochists